009 (1979)
Joe Shimamura, aka 009 is one of the nine protagonists of the 1979 incarnation of Cyborg 009, as well as the titular character. Appearance Joe is an athletic young man with short, perpetually windswept blonde hair, black eyebrows and dark brown eyes. In battle, Joe wears a red, double-breasted military uniform with padded shoulders, black contrast bands, and four large yellow buttons on his chest and torso. On his waist is a black belt with a gun holster that holds his blaster, his main weapon. He wears knee-high black boots and a long, yellow scarf wrapped around his neck. When not fighting, Joe can be seen wearing various civilian clothing, usually a light beige pea jacket with pants and shoes. Personality Joe is a compassionate and righteous young man who desires to fight for the good of all mankind. That said, he can't stand any kind of injustice and hates anyone who commits evil. During the Yggdrasil Arc, Joe held a grudge against the Norse cyborgs after seeing their acts of cruelty towards humans, rejecting Odin's offer for the 00 Cyborg team to become gods. Because of the Norse cyborgs' actions, Joe believes that the concepts of God and divine faiths are false. However, when Freyja defected and attempted to atone for her misdeeds, Joe rejected her believing her to be still evil. It was only after Freyja sacrificing herself to help the 00 Cyborgs did he realize that Freyja was good all along and apologized for misjudging her. History Joe was born to a Japanese mother and a father of unknown nationality. When he was a year old, his mother deposited him off at an orphanage, dying shortly after. The only memory Joe has of his mother is a photograph in his private possessions. In his teens, Joe became a delinquent due to the bullying and ostracizing he had received over his mixed race heritage. At one point, he stayed with a man named Dr. Tanabe and his daughter Yuri, and had come to see Tanabe as something like a father. His luck would worsen when he defended a fellow biracial friend named Jiro from a gang, and wound up sent to a reformatory for his violence, taking the fall for Jiro. One night, Joe would attempt to break out from the reformatory, but would be captured by two Black Ghost operatives, who would take him away to be remodeled into Cyborg 009. After meeting the rest of the 00 Cyborgs and Dr. Gilmore, Joe followed them in their rebellion and they fought against the Black Ghost organization until they believed it to have been defeated. Afterwards, Joe would become a F-1 racer and become close to a racing fan of his named Mayumi, though she soon dropped out of his life without much word. Around the five year mark of his retirement of being 009, he would wind up called back into action when the Stone Giants appeared, along with the threat of the Neo Black Ghost. Abilities Like his previous incarnations, Joe possesses an Accelerator. By pressing a special switch located in his back tooth, he can run speeds up to Mach 5, which is faster than the human eye can process. When using the Accelerator, everything around Joe comes to a complete standstill, while he is able to move normally. Notes * While this version of Joe appeared in early promotional material with brown hair, it was decided for some reason or another to have him appear as a blond in the actual series. The manga incarnation of Joe thus switched to having blond hair as well, for a time. * Joe's origin as given in Animage depicted him escaping from the reformatory with a friend, as he had in the manga. However, when it came time for his origin to be incorporated into the series, he was depicted as alone in his escape. * Joe's F-1 racing career comes from his brief stint as "Hurricane Joe" in the'' Underground Empire of Yomi'' arc in the manga, which in turn was due to the 1966 film. Category:Cyborgs Category:Cyborg 009 (1979) Category:Male characters